Hanukkah Light in a Dark World
Before the Hamas war against Israel, the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, and yesterday’s shooting attack in Australia, I associated Hanukkah with triumph rather than…
January 2026
Print Edition
January 2026 Print Edition
America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life
False Patriots
Tucker and the Right
Something like a civil war is unfolding within the American conservative movement. It is not merely a…
Work Is for the Worker
In these early days of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has made one thing clear: The responsible…
Just Stop It
Earlier this summer, Egypt’s Ministry of Religious Endowments launched a new campaign. It is entitled “Correct Your…
Dark Phantoms
It happened quickly, so quickly that you’d think it was impossible to retain the image. The Ohio…
The First Things Podcast
Heritage and the Right
Conversations
The Church’s Answer to the World (ft. Carter Griffin)
The Editor’s Desk
The Sabbath is Back! (ft. J. J. Kimche)
A Catholic Approach to Immigration
Slamming the Door on Female Clergy
The year 2025 witnessed not only the death of the most liberal pope in the history of…
Hanukkah Light in a Dark World
Before the Hamas war against Israel, the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City,…
The Catholic Confronting Communism in Chile’s Presidential Election
In 2017, Sebastián Piñera—Chile’s leading center-right figure—stood on the threshold of his second presidential term. He appeared…
Same-Sex Marriage and the European Bishops
On November 25, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ordered Poland to recognize same-sex marriage. Polish law…
The Problem with the Evangelical Elite
The problem with the evangelical elite is that there isn’t one. All too few evangelical Christians hold…
In Praise of Translation
This essay was delivered as the 38th Annual Erasmus Lecture. The circumstances of my life have been…
Practitioners of Infanticide
A physician declares his dying patient—a seven-pound baby boy—“dangerous as dynamite,” a “menace to society.” A routine…
Tunnel Vision
Alice Roberts is a familiar face in British media. A skilled archaeologist, she has for years hosted…
Hegemon or Empire?
Was the First Gulf War a mistake? The historian Paul Schroeder thought the answer was yes…
Make Me A Lutheran
John Fisher, the renowned Bishop of Rochester, is known to history chiefly for having been put to…
Canticle of All Creatures
This poem was written by St. Francis of Assisi, and translated by Dana Gioia. Most high, all…
Address Book
The leather binding, torn and askew,is barely joined by brittle pieces of Scotch tape. And the names…
The Ruin
Remorseless sun stunts the dew Glistening towers of tainted glassignite and blister …
Empathy is Not Charity
Martin Scorsese’s recent film Silence, like the historical novel by Shūsaku Endō on which it is based,…
The Sacred Heart of Victor Hugo
The Temptation of the Impossible: Victor Hugo and Les Misérables By Mario Vargas Llosa Princeton University Press,…
The Whole World Groans
St. Jerome, angry over the protracted Arian crisis and the apparent victory of the “semi-Arians” at the…
Christianity and Poetry
I When I became a man, I put away childish things.—St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 13 Most Christians…
My Madness
My brother Peter was a wondrous boy, the youngest, brightest, and bounciest of three kids: IQ 165,…
Shakespeare, Four Centuries On
This Saturday, April 23rd, marks an important anniversary: four hundred years since the death of William Shakespeare.…
